How can a poor man who doesn't have food be patriotic? Scores of people are leaving India to go and settle overseas not because they lack patriotism but because those countries are able to offer them job security and opportunities, which our country is unable to. Therefore if you want widespread respect for the country and its symbols like the flag then you need to give a certain dignity to the people by ensuring that their basic needs are met. Otherwise the government, the bureaucrats and the politicians can keep talking about patriotism but it will not have any widespread effect.

Indeed, the very denial of the right to fly the Flag to the Indian citizen - as was the existing status quo for decades after independence - is itself the manifestation of a psychological mind set, a subservience to imperial and colonial notions of governance and a slavish approach to nationhood. Such a denial perpetuates the hiatus between the governors and the governed which is fundamentally antithetical to the very concept of a Republic signified by the emotive and euphoric opening words of our Constitution - "We the people…"

A flag by itself cannot hold a whole big nation like ours enthralled with national pride. But it can help inculcate a spirit of unity and friendship amongst its young citizens. What the three colours stand for and the duties of every citizen in our developing country should be explained to the school children. They should also learn that other nations and other people around ours should be given the same love and respect we give ourselves.

The National Flag is like a symbol of our Indian identity - that we are definitely a part of the national whole. Without this we are left as lonely cronies roaming in the jungle.

As an artist, I find the visual aspect of our flag too drab. Whenever I observed Indian flag flapping alongside the world flags, it makes no visual impression. The idea is great but without not much artistic involvement. Incidentally, most of our political symbols are most un-artistic. Our flag is but a major evidence.

There are two sides of culture, popular and conceptual. Popular culture expresses the ordinary demands that can easily be manipulated such as in politics, riots, religions or, say, fashion. In India normally we do not trivialize the national flag, but the waves of market-culture from the West, especially the U.S., have blinded the urban taste.

While I certainly prefer to see the tricolour to seeing an orange or a green flag, I do believe that in the 21st century human beings have to move beyond narrow nationalism and embrace the fact that we are all human beings first.

I certainly welcome the fact that all citizens are empowered to use the flag, but certain self-restrain is necessary. I can't see an undergarment being made out of a flag, for example. If the citizens can't, then the government should lay down the norms.

The association of flag colours with specific religions has become part of public consciousness only in the recent years, largely due to the communal strife. The coming together of colours representing the different religions as seen in the flag is therefore a welcome idea.

I had done two portraits for newspapers that involved the National-Flag one of which was done more than ten years back. It was of Manmohan Singh when he was the Finance Minister and I provided an opening in our flag to suggest how the Indian society was being opened up to MNCs. In 1997, a magazine did a cover feature in which they had Jaya Bachchan, Leela Samson and myself dressed in saris matching the different colours of the flag. We were photographed in a visual composition based on an Amrita Sher Gil painting. The idea was to highlight the changing place of Indian women over the fifty years since independence.

National-Flag is not always hoisted out of patriotic sentiments. It can be a matter of safety. Fishermen operating in places where India shares a maritime border with Pakistan or Bangladesh, hoist the tricolour on their boats to avoid needless harassment from the Indian coast guards.

There may be religious symbols, flags etc. but the National-Flag has its own identity and is quite distinct and we must show due respect to it separate from other religious flags and symbols. It should command our due respect.

What has been the underlying spirit that the Indian flag symbolizes?
- Fraternity in liberty rather than untrammeled pursuit of individual happiness.
- Fraternity through justice rather than justice as equality in mediocrity.
- Diversity and unity rather than diversity by itself or unity by itself.
- Panchsheel in relation to the rest of the world rather than any dream of world hegemony.
Into that heaven let our country awake.

I was approaching 17 when India was to be free. But no celebrations in Nizam's Secunderabad where I lived then. I used to bicycle to Sultan Bazaar in Hyderabad and once saw a police station enveloped by a huge tree. So if one could climb the tree unnoticed, he could go to the terrace of the police station. The police station was the place to fly the Indian flag! There was an old tricolour in our house. It had a charka, not a chakra. But still good enough as a symbol of a free Indian nation. For a week I dreamed of getting to the place, climbing the tree, etc. But where was I to keep my bicycle? Hyderabad was more than ten kilometers away and I didn't know any people there. It was all just a young boy's dreamy heroics.

But in truth, somebody did plant the Indian flag atop the Sultan Bazaar police station, and when the authorities discovered it, the whole city did become very hot. People who publicly clamoured for the merger of the princely state with the Indian Union were hunted and jailed. Ultimately, the merger took place - thirteen months later.

To see poor, malnourished and marginalized young people carrying the flag of the nation that has betrayed their promise is an experience that invariably fills me with guilt and sadness. The flag then becomes a symbol of promises broken and trust betrayed. Let me hope that the next generation will be more worthy than this one of our flag and what it should mean for every citizen.

The tricolour is a symbol of our freedom, of our self-respect, and of sacrifices and martyrdoms. People belonging to the older generations would certainly remember the time when young boys and girls would form themselves into small groups, take the flag in their hands, and go around villages and city streets singing vijayi vishwa tiranga pyara, jhanda uncha rahe hamara (may our beloved and victorious tricolour fly high in the world).